Something To Live For
by yvj
Summary: On a deserted island after successfully saving the world a light from Team Possible finally dims. But can one light continue to shine without the other?…...Next stop Angstville! Oneshot


Director's commentary: I once thought I would never do a fic like this, because frankly I never really liked them. But this story invaded my personal space and it got to a point where if I didn't write it I would never get to my other stories. So here we go enjoy because I probably won't ever write one like this again. Go ahead cry me a river

Recommended listening: I will be right here waiting for you -Bryan Adams. How do I -LeAnn Rimes. Always -Bon Jovi (I think) Fade to Black Metallica (awesome guitar riff). Don't wanna miss a thing - Aerosmith

Oh yea I don't own Kim Possible etc...

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It had been dark for awhile. Just how long he wasn't sure. He felt a sense of sleepiness growing in him. Maybe he was still unconscious. Then he realized that unconscious people don't feel pain, or have a sensation of movement through the dark. Movement accompanied by a faint, rhythmic rasping of someone straining with a great weight. And unconscious people don't detect odors. Even if it was a pleasant odor, the faint yet familiar smell of strawberry shampoo, smelled like… like happiness? That didn't make any sense.

"Don't worry Ron."

_What's happening… why is there so much pain? _

There's more pain and then more movement. "Kim," he cries, but the cry is only in his head, his lips don't move, his breathing unusually shallow. He tries to call out her name a second time.

"Don't speak Ron, save your strength."

Ron opened his eyes. It was brown underfoot, deep blue overhead, a purple streak under the faraway horizon. The beach! If he was on the beach then that obviously meant they had made it to an island. He felt relieved at first but that was before the pain returned, raking his entire body.

Kim dragged Ron's lithe-less body away from the lifeboat. She managed to carry him a few feet away from the shore before laying him gently onto a sand dune. Then she collapsed next to him, a brief show of exhaustion.

"Are you ok?" he whispered. His voice was quiet yet alert.

"I'm fine," she snapped. "I'm fine." She pulled his shirt up. The white cloth that she had used to cover Ron's wound was now bright red. "God no" She picked herself up out of the sand and dashed back to the lifeboat.

Ron grimaced from the pain. He was vaguely aware of his surroundings. He saw something, a white flash, overhead.

"Seagull?" Ron thought, "or maybe a dove."

He saw Kim rushing back towards him, carrying what he could assume where blankets or sheets.

He batted his eyes and suddenly Kim was hovering over his body. Her hands now moved along his body. He had unknowingly blacked out for a few seconds.

"KP"

"Shhh," she told him. Ron's body was leaking, leaking blood like a river through a dam. She flattened a hand against the wound, pushing against the flood.

_So tired. _There was a moment of vertigo where Ron felt that he was nowhere, an absolute moment of disconnection. It seemed too stupid to stay awake so he let himself fall asleep.

XXXXX

_The boat was sinking, that's what he partially remembered. They had chased down another criminal, a supposedly lower tier villain with a stupid name like The Slaying Dutchman and his longshoreman-servant. Routine stuff, no big, ham and egger villains threatens the world, they take them down. That's how it worked, that's how it always worked._

_It should have been easy. In reality it was anything but. They barely managed to come out on top, but in the end they saved the world, because that's what Team Possible does, they save the world. But the Dutchman didn't want to go down easily. _

_Okay, self-destruct sequence; the boat was going up in flames, standard villainy etiquette after a failed plan. Not to brag, but Team Possible had gone through this scenario on dozens of other missions. They could handle it, they just had get to the lifeboats and escape. But the Dutchman didn't want to give up. He didn't even care about his own safety… a real psycho… waited by the lifeboats, didn't know when to give in, he didn't know when to stop… he didn't play fair…_

_But then again, villains never played fair. _

"**Kim, look out!" **

_Suddenly he could feel blood. He was soaked with it. It was flooding out of his body, pulsing out. He remembered hearing a scream. His? Hers? He didn't know but the blood, it bubbled its way out of his body, squirting between his clamped hands like a faucet being turned on and off._

What brought him back was the pain. It was the only thing pinning him to the world of consciousness, at least now he could breathe a little more. He heard the air going in and out of him in short but great dry gasps.

"Ron? Ron, are you there?" Kim snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. "Earth to Ron?"

He brushed her hand away with infinite tenderness. "Jeez Kim do you have to be so loud?"

She laughed, or did she? He heard that quaint yet natural laugh escape from her lips but tears poured down her eyes, past her cheek, a mix of love and worry in her eyes.

Ron lay wretched, broken in body more than in spirit, so he searched himself for the will to stand up. He wondered how badly he had been hurt. And why did he taste blood in his mouth? This time it wasn't the pain that stopped him from moving.

"Don't move, you'll just hurt yourself."

He waited, breathing hard. "How are you feeling?"

She wiped the tears from her eyes and sniffed. "Don't worry about me. I told you I'm fine."

"I could have sworn I told you to go on without me. The boat was sinking."

"Yeah," she brushed her hair away from her face. He saw the redness of her eyes. "Well over the years I've learned to ignore some of the inane comments you tend to make."

"Inane?"

"Silly."

"Oh… why didn't you just say that?" He tried to laugh but he soon realized that the laughter wasn't worth the pain. "If you're going to insult me, the least you can do is insult me in a way I understand. Anyway the smart thing to do was to leave----" Ron watched her fondly as she offered him a hard stare, as though telling him to drop the subject. He whispered something inaudible to her, so she leaned closer to his body.

"Gotcha" He reached up and pulled her into an embrace. She was momentarily stunned by the act, but then she reciprocated the hug.

"Thank you" he told her

"You're going to be okay Ron, everything will be fine," she whispered her mouth close to his face so that he shuddered slightly when her breath brushed past his ear.

"KP," he said.

"Yes."

He pulled her closer, tightening his embrace. "Did I lose a lot of blood?"

"What?"

"Kim, I'm cold. We're on a tropical island and I'm really cold. How much blood did I lose?"

"I'm not really sure…."

"A lot?"

"Please," she broke away from his grasp, "….if you're cold then I'll just start a fire."

"Kim."

"Just relax Ron, save your strength, don't worry about anything, just… just let me handle things." She stood up and slowly walked into the heavily forested area of the island.

"Kim, wait." He tried to lean onto his sides

"Ron, please," she pleaded, "you're just going to open up your wound even more."

"Kim…" Ron began and then the world wavered. He lay back down, closed his eyes, concentrating hard. "Kim how bad is it…?"

The sound of her footsteps quickly moving further away was the answer he got. A few seconds later, he once again let the sleep wash over him.

XXXXXXX

Normally he would have loved to have awoken to such a cozy scene. The crackle of a warm fire next to him, a beautiful starlit sky above the soft layered sand beneath him. Under different circumstances it would have been the perfect atmosphere for him and Kim.

_Under different circumstances_

He exhaled and immediately heard her soft steps rapidly approaching. He stared straight up at her face when she reached him. "Hey."

"Good to have you back," she said quietly.

"So we're on a deserted tropical island together… it's kind of romantic don't cha think?"

"Yeah, it is lovely out here isn't it?" A warm salty tropical breeze blew in from the ocean. "It's beautiful and serene."

"I had a dream like this once, you and me on an island, it was just like this, except the sky was purple for some reason and I wasn't bleeding through a hole in my body, plus I was naked most of the time."

That brought a smile to her face, he liked her smile. It brought a sense of warmth to him.

She sat down in the lotus position next to his body. "God it's been a really, really rough day."

"You're preaching to the choir Kim." He shifted his body to the left; it was becoming almost unbearable to lay fully on his right side. Just then he noticed that she was holding a sharp stick in her hand. "What's that?"

"This?" she said. "Oh this… is… for protection."

"Protection from what?"

"I don't know….I'm just being cautious that's all."

Ron blinked at her and did what could only be described as a shrug. "Hey remember…."

She leaned in closer to hear him speak.

"Remember in the first grade when Harry the class hamster died. And we saw the janitor bury him in the ground. It really weirded me out but then you said… you told me," he inhaled, "don't worry they'll put him the ground now and he'll come back up in the spring."

He chuckled.

She pulled her gaze away from him and turned it towards the ocean. "I'm sure Wade can pinpoint our location. A rescue ship is probably on its way over as we speak and then we can get you to a hospital."

"Hmmm, didn't you lose the Kimmunicator during the fight? It went overboard, remember"

"Yes I do, but it wouldn't be hard for Wade to figure out our last location before the signal was lost. With that info he could get the word to Global Justice that we're missing. They'll probably find us in a couple of hours."

"Right, they'll find _us._" Ron stated then a slow smile came to his face. "Do you remember... the first time we kissed? I don't mean that Moodulator sitch, I mean the real thing?"

Her head bobbed up and down her demeanor had suddenly become melancholy. "How could I forget that….Junior Prom, I'll never forget it."

"You really surprised me with that kiss. Open mouth… not that I'm complaining, it was just out of left field… it was a surprise for a first kiss I mean."

A red tinge appeared on her cheeks. "I guess I let my emotions get the best of me."

Ron sighed. "I kind of wish you'd have let your emotions get the best of you a little more, when we were alone."

She playfully kicked some sand at him. "Pervert," she teased.

"You think I'm perverted now? You should have been in my head when we got caught in that rainstorm last week. Your clothes all clingy and damp... Wow."

"So that's why you had that glazed look in your eye, I thought you were sick."

"Sick? I was trapped in a hormonal overdrive. I was the personification of lust… I'm sorry to say it but I had some NC 17 rated dreams that night."

"You sound like you're confessing to a crime. Do you think I'd be angry because you dreamed about me once?"

"Once," he tried to laugh but it ended up as a cough, "right, once yeah, let's go with that"

Kim rocked back and forth "When I was little, like maybe seven, I had a dream that we got married. We had a Fudgie the whale ice cream wedding cake, Barney was the preacher, and after the wedding we got into a rocket ship and blasted off to explore the universe."

She paused. "I had the same dream a couple of weeks ago."

"You had a dream about us getting married when we're seven?"

"No----"

"Cuz that's a little weird."

"We were older in this one, much older."

"Hmmm, did we still get to explore space?"

She shook her but she still had a smile on her face. "Yeah"

"Sweet," Ron replied. "I had a dream once where we were on this big boat that people said was unsinkable. But then is started to sink. People were rushing towards the life boats but the band was still playing and----

"Ron" she interrupted "that was a movie, a movie called Titanic"

"Oh right…right…well I had this other dream where you were flying a kite during a hurricane. The wind was blowing so hard it almost carried you away. I remember trying to pull you back down to earth by your feet. I knew it was impossible to fight ninety mile per hour winds. But I didn't care; I just had to keep holding on. I couldn't let go…"

Kim was quiet all he could hear was her breathing "I'm glad you didn't let go" she said finally.

"Of you?"

"I wasn't talking about the kite"

"Oh….it was a nice kite though "He stared into the darkness of the sky. He focused beyond the moon, beyond the stars. Into the emptiness of the… what was the word he was looking for… void… yeah. In the vast, infinite dark void it occurred to him for the first time. It wasn't an earth shattering discovery in his heart. It was a quiet revelation that tugged at his chest.

"The universe, void where prohibited." _Did that make any sense? I must have lost some brain cells along with all that blood._

"Huh?" Kim asked.

"Nothing" He returned his focus to Kim. "Woody Allen had this great one liner; he says "It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Kim bristled at the joke.

"You know what I hate about death?"

"Ron please"

"It's just so random. A baby could die a few minutes after it's born, or you could live to be eighty and die chocking on banana pudding. A billionaire exec could slip in his bathroom and land on a plunger, or a handsome twenty year old hero could go down in the line of---"

"Just stop."

"You're right, we shouldn't talk about it. Death is just a random jerk anyway."

"Death is stupid," she added.

"Yeah, death's a doodie head," Ron continued. "A putz… a schlep….now I can't help but think I should have paid more attention in temple."

"That's it," she got up with a fit, "if you're going to keep up all this morbid talk, then I'm jut going to sit on the other side of fire."

"Kim."

"No!"

He grabbed her foot before she could walk away. "Kim." His voice cracked around the words. "Kim, I'm dying."

"Ron, don't talk like that!"

"But English is the only language I know," he joked. "Okay, I know a dash of Hebrew and now that I think about it. I may be able to pull off a rough Japanese translation."

"Ron, you're not dying, Wade will have Global Justice come for us for sure."

He shook his head. "Yeah but they won't make it in time… not for me anyway."

"Ron, you don't know what you're talking about."

"Haven't you ever seen a western, it's basically a gutshot----"

"You're talking about movies Ron. You've got no medical experience!"

"And you do?"

"My mother is a surgeon!" she shouted at him.

He let go of her feet. "Oh right, I forgot. I guess you would know if I'm dying right?" he told her.

"You're not dying," she said firmly.

He looked away from her. "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

With that she walked off in a huff and took a seat on the other of the fire. She tried to fight it but she started to cry. She attempted to muffle her weeping, chocking back the breathless sobs with her hands. On the other side of the flames, Ron heard her cry, and it was the worst moment of his life, it hurt more than any physical pain could.

XXXXXX

The fire was getting low when he heard Kim march back into the forest area. She was probably going to get more wood for the fire. He listened intently for any more noise to make sure she was really gone.

Once he was sure the coast was clear, he reached into the pockets of his cargo pants and pulled out his wallet. He opened the wallet up and removed a small picture from the inner pockets. It was a small photo of him and his family enjoying a picnic on a beautiful summer evening. Ever since he started tackling these missions with Kim, he carried a photo of his family with him just in case.

_Just in case is right now._

His thumb earnestly trailed around the edges of the picture. He wouldn't even get to say goodbye.

_Funny how you don't realize how much you love life until you're about to die._

Yeah he loved life. He loved his family, he loved Rufus, and he loved Bueno Nacho. He loved monkeys, Monday morning pop quizzes, lawn gnomes, robot horses. He loved Lamar and his freakishly moist hands, garbage trucks that make that beep-beep-beep noise at six in the morning. He loved his colorful aunt who only gave him socks for his birthday, for all his birthdays. He loved the feeling of getting atomic wedgies from bullies. He loved the feeling of embarrassment he got when his pants fell down during a school assembly in high school. He loved the feeling of getting caught in his zipper….

Okay, maybe he didn't love that… but most of all he loved her.

There was an instant dizziness and then it felt like something had silently blown upside in him, like everything had just ruptured in his body. But it wasn't fair, twenty years wasn't enough. Why did it have to be him? What did he do to deserve this? There was so much he hadn't done, so much he hadn't seen, So much yet to experience, to learn. God why, why him? It just wasn't enough, no where near enough.

Was he going crazy? He had never gone crazy before, how could one recognize when he was going crazy. He was sweating and his skin tingled. "No, no. no…" he rejected the craziness, the pure panic of it. He wouldn't let it consume him.

Suddenly Kim rushed to his side. She wrapped her arms around him. "Ron what's wrong?"

"I don't know," he cried. It was the truth; he didn't know what was happening. The sudden torrent of grief was overwhelming, but Kim was holding him and that's all he needed.

"Go ahead and cry," she whispered, "I've got you."

_Yeah you do, you really do, but not for much longer  
_

XXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a shame, whenever he got a few moment of peace, the pain caught him and heaved him away from the dream world. It was still dark when he opened his eyes. He shifted his body to the left again, wondering how he could get back to sleep

"You should try to get some rest," Kim told him.

Ron sighed. His head lay on her lap. "I'm trying."

She looked down at him. He was getting paler by the minute; his once red lips were now losing color. It was awful.

"Kim, I'm feeling hot and cold at the same time… I think I'm going through menopause."

"You can't be," she said, rubbing her fingers across his forehead, "you're not a woman."

"Hey, don't hold that against me…"he grinned "what's the problem, are you worried about me?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"We can worry about me later. What we should worry about now is global warming."

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, he touched her cheek while she tried not to cry. "Why?" she asked

"Why, what?"

"Why did you jump in front of me? It's my fault that you're hurting right now… it's my fault that you're… if I didn't drag you to these missions you'd be fine, you'd… you'd be fine."

Ron blinked at her in surprise. "Wait are you waiting for me to say the obvious? Hmmm let me think about that question for a moment." He paused for a second. "Oh yeah, I love you, I love when you smile, when you frown. I love you when you're sitting or when you're standing, I love you with your hair tied up or with your hair loose. I'd love you if you were fat and ugly. I'd love you if you were bald and toothless. I'd love you if you came without ribbons, came without tags! Came without packages, boxes or bags!" He took a moment to catch his breath. "I came on these missions so I could help you, even when I knew I had no business being around, I came in case you needed me. Today you needed me and I did what anyone would have done for the person they love. I could tell you I regret my actions but I'd be lying. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it"

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "I love you too Ron."

"Whew, I'm going to be honest, it's kind of a relief to here that."

She gently placed his head down on the sand, and she carefully crawled over him. She pulled his shirt up towards his shoulders.

"Hey."

"I just want to hear your heart." She pressed her cheek against his body, her ear on the center of his chest. They sat that way for awhile, the hushed silence only broken by the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore.

"I'm scared KP," he told her.

"It's ok to be scared, it's only natural."

"I'm not scared of dying; I'm scared of being without you."

Wordlessly she picked her head up and kissed him in the hair, then on the forehead, and then tenderly on his eyelids.

"Kim, what are you doing?" he asked before she gently kissed him on the lips.

"I'm letting my emotions get the best of me.

"Oh," was his only reply.

"Just relax," she said as she removed her shirt.

"Look Kim, you don't have to this…"

"You're still worried about me." Her fingers dug through his hair and she kissed him. Ron closed his eyes when her tongue slipped into his mouth, probing him, seeking out all that ailed him. She broke the kiss "I guess that's what I love about you. You give more than you take, but now I want to give you something."

She leaned into him, Ron groaned a bit when she pressed against his wound.

"The wound," she started to pull away.

"Wait… wait" He was momentarily drunk with her, intoxicated by her taste, her smell, and her touch. "Screw the wound," he said breathlessly.

"Oh tough guy," she purred.

"Grrrrr, I'm a bad boy," he replied when she placed her hands on his hips and they moved lower.

Her face was astonishingly sweet during passion. She seemed to be smiling the whole time. He couldn't help but smile himself, she made him feel so incredible, he felt like he would melt into her, there was no pain; no impending death on the horizon, there was nothing to worry about, nothing to fear. It was just Team Possible and nothing could be wrong with that.

He shuddered. "Kim, I'm…"

Her back arched dramatically, then she quickly nuzzled back into his body. Her hair flowed around his face, hiding her eyes. "Don't worry about me, just forget about everything…"

When it was over, when it was finally over, neither of them could move. The whole world seemed to be frozen in time. They just laid there in each other's arms.

_God I've only done it once. But I know for sure I'm really going to miss doing that_. He thought

XXXXXXXXXXX

"So… what you're trying to say is that Mr. Barkin actually… liked me?"

Kim gave Ron's body a light squeeze as her face pressed against his chest. "I can't believe you never noticed that. He was, in his own sadistic way, trying to teach you to be a man."

"Wouldn't it have been… easier for him just to say… 'Stoppable be a man!'" Ron said in an overly exaggerated gruff voice.

"Actually he did say that. Remember when you tried out for the football team. And you jammed your fingers when Brik threw you that pass. You cried for like ten minutes."

He ran his fingers through her hair. "Oh right, right… so Barkin put me through… all kinds of hell… just to help me… build character?"

"Yep."

"I wish….I had known. I wouldn't have… put itching powder in his shoes… the day before we graduated." Ron said through his labored breathing.

"That was you?"

"Actually… that was Zorpox…..Kim do you remember… the Versace sweater… you…..brought two years ago. The one you adored so much… I was the one that spilled the grape juice on it and… I got Rufus to take the blame."

"Oh I knew that."

"What? How… come you didn't….totally freak? I was sure… you would have broken up with me… if you found out."

"Ron, it was just a stupid sweater."

He was taken aback by this shocking revelation. That stupid sweater had caused him many sleepless nights. "Another… bit of knowledge I could have used."

"Remember that girl who interned at your dad's job that summer you were working with him?"

"Who?"

"Dark hair, brown eyes, perfect teeth, wonderfully unblemished skin."

Ron searched his brain for a name. "Wait… are you… talking about Sasha?"

"Sarah," Kim corrected. "She asked you out."

"What… when?"

"She left a few messages on your answering machine after you quit."

"I… don't remember any messages…"

"I deleted them," Kim interrupted. She told him this as if she had confessed to a triple homicide. "I spent that whole summer checking your answering machine before you got home."

"You know… she could have… just asked me out in person."

"I would have crossed that bridge when I reached it. Are you mad at me for deleting the messages?"

She lifted her head to see the smirk on his face. "Nah… I can't be angry at you for being who you are… it's your Kimmess, yes… it's a little insane at times… but its part of what I love about… you, although now I know… why she gave me the cold shoulder at the company… picnic."

Kim gave his right hand a little squeeze.

"There's… this song that my dad used… to play all the time when I was… younger. I can't… seem to get it out of… my head now."

"How does it go?"

"**Where… It… began, I can't begin to…. know when, but then I… know it's growing strong. Oh, wasn't… the spring, and… spring became the summer. Who'd… believe you'd come along."**

"I know this song," she said. **"Hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you."**

"**Oh, sweet…"** Ron paused **"………Kim-of-mine," he continued after replacing the words of the song. "Good… times never seem so… good; I've been inclined… to believe it never… would."**

She started the next verse. **"And now I, I look at the night, And it don't seem so lonely. We fill it up with only two."**

Ron continued. **"Oh, and… when I hurt. Hurting… runs off my shoulder. How can… I hurt when… holding you?"**

"**Oh, one, touching one, reaching out, touching me, touching you,"** they sang together. **"Oh, sweet Kim-of-mine/Ron-of-mine. Good times never seem so good; oh I've been inclined to believe it never would!"**

"Funny… I used to hate that… song," Ron remarked "Let's sing it one more time"

XXXXXXX

"Remember… that dude that was at your mom's… birthday party. The guy… with that haircut I thought….was cool."

"Dr. Beakman's son?"

"Yeah… that guy was cool. He seemed nice as hell… smart too… I think he kind of liked you."

"What are you trying to say?" she asked

"I'm… just you… know," it was impossible to hide the hurt on his face. "We… both know that… eventually---"

"Are you trying to find a replacement for yourself?"

"Well… no, not a replacement… more like a consolation prize really… Look I… you're going to have to… move," his voice trailed, "….move on."

Her eyes rolled towards the heavens. "Ron, stop talking crazy and look at the sunrise."

Ron, who was curled up in her lap, craned his neck upwards. As if on cue, the sun came up like a ball of fire coming out of the earth with a brilliant orange glow.

"I… should have… gotten up early… and watched some more… of these. Then… again, I guess there… are a lot of… things I should… have done."

"Tell me how."

"What…..?"

"How do I go on without you Ron? How?"

He managed to get breath, although the exhale was more blood than air. "The French have a saying."

She waited for him to say it, the saying that would have a profound effect on her for the rest of her life."

"I can't remember it" he said sadly

"Well" Kim said thoughtfully "Maybe that's because you're not French. Do you have a Jewish saying? Say one of those"

"Maybe I'll….just say something……from myself" he sighed "You'll…….find a way…..Kim……You…..don't need…..me."

"Yes I do. Who am I without you?"

"You're……Kim Possible, you're courageous, beautiful, smart…..you can do anything….you'll find something to live for." He felt weak he could barely hold his head up. "I…..know……you….will," he said. Everything grew dark until there was nothing left but a wavering field of darkness.

"Don't pass out Ron, try and stay awake please," Kim shouted at him but she was met with an absolute stone cold silence.

Frantic, she rushed to the campsite. She snatched the sharp wooden stick she had created from a tree's limb hours ago and rushed in a mad panic to Ron's body.

Kim knelt besides his body and braced herself for what she was about to do. She placed the sharp end of the stick an arms length for her jugular. The image of her family flashed in her mind.

"I'm sorry," she blurted out in between sobs, "I'm sorry for this." She couldn't let Ron die alone. They were part of a team… Team Possible. They did everything together… everything. It was the right thing to do. She closed her eyes; she was ready to face the pain. Be it heaven or oblivion, Ron wasn't going alone.

She thrust the makeshift dagger towards her neck.

"What… the hell do… you think… you're doing?"

Kim opened her eyes. The stick was less than an inch from her throat. But now she wasn't the only one holding it.

_How? _

From the ground, Ron gripped the far end of the impromptu dagger. "Why?" he said with a wavering breath.

"I can't let you die alone."

"Why did you… think I jumped… in front of you? For laughs… just for the heck of it? I wanted… you to live… I did it… so you can… go on and… grow old, even if I'm not there."

"I can't…." she cried.

"Yes… you can, you have… to continue to grow old, wear old granny panties… and hand out rock hard… candies to your… grandchildren."

"I don't want to," she sobbed. Tears cascaded down her face. "I need you… why can't, why can't I save you Ron?"

"It's not your fault… Kim… my luck just ran out. But promise me that'll you live. You'll… enjoy your life, live to be ninety if you want… and then… then when it's all said and done, when it's finally your… turn, after all these years… I swear I'll be the first face you see."

Kim let the stick fall to the ground and sniffed. "You'll wait for me….."

"As long as it takes… I'll wait for as long… as it takes. Really I've got nothing better to do" He touched her cheek with his hand. She clasped his hand to her face and gave it a little kiss.

"I promise, I promise I'll live."

"Hey… don't cry anymore… have I told you that I love you yet?"

She nodded. "Yeah, you did."

Ron was fading. Goodnight San Diego. Good night sweet price. Eb-dee eb-dee eb-dee ebdee- That's all folks. Hasta, la vista baby...Game over man, Game Over…..He was buying the farm, kicking the bucket, death, the real final frontier. Que Sera Sera...C'est la vie

He lay back in the sand and it was like falling onto a cloud, He saw the flash of white again. Dove, this time he was sure it was a dove.

_Hey, it hadn't been that bad. He was a hero; he had saved lives, helped saved the whole world and in the end, best of all, he got the girl._

"KP… do you think there are nacos in heaven?"

"Of course, its heaven isn't it?" She said, and Ron slipped into darkness smiling.

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Kim approached the stone marker with rough writing scratched on it. An unusually cold breeze blew her hair around her. She knew this part of the island well; she had completely familiarized herself with it in the two weeks she had lived here before Global Justice rescued her. This part of the island would always be on her mind.

She knelt next to the stone marker that also doubled as a headstone. She should have returned five years ago, but she couldn't bring herself to take the trip back here. This place, a place she wanted to remember forever and forget at the same time.

"Hey," she said "I'm sorry, I should have come here sooner, but…" she bit her lip, angry at herself for waiting so long.

A tear slid down her right cheek. "I want you to meet someone."

From the shadow of a palm tree stepped out a little girl. She wore a pure white sun dress and she carried a long stemmed white rose in her hand. Kim invited the four year old to come closer. The little blond girl skipped happily over and placed the rose onto the stone marker.

Kim kissed her daughter on the cheek. "Ronni, say hi to daddy."

"Hi daddy" the little girl said sweetly.

The cold breeze changed to a sudden blast of warm tropical air. Ronni giggled as a blowing leaf brushed past her ear tickling her in the process.

"You were right Ron, I did find something to live for, something important." Kim smiled to herself as her hair blew about in the wind.

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Director's commentary: Writing a story that involves killing your favorite character is very painful. (I'm sorry Ron!!!) It was so bad that I immediately thought about creating a pseudo sequel with Ron as a guardian angel. But I won't, that idea is going to the deepest trenches of my mind for now

So anyway I had to listen to a bunch of sad lite music to get me in the mood. I depressed myself for a whole day just to get this story out. So I hope you folks appreciate the effort. Because it was rough, but after all the gut busting comedy (reviewers words not mine) I served in About A Ron I guess it was time for some angst. :)

If Ron were to die during a mission this is how I would envision him dying. Going out with a smile knowing he had done his best for Kim. The story itself wasn't really original (death fics usually aren't) but I think I got the point across. Making people sad,(especially if you took my advice with the music i.e "Don't want to miss a thing") Hopefully none of you are laughing right now.

You're probably thinking "hey how can Ron "do it" when he's dying" My answer to this is hey "fuggedabouitt"

I tried not making it too sappy, at first I was aiming for some real haunting sadness type thing but eh what are you going to do. I just couldn't pull it off so I went with soul crushingly depressing. The song Kim and Ron sing together is called Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond

Remember folks when you leave a review an angel gets its wings :) Now time for Middlewood


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